Hi,
Have been looking over previous posts and although there are some similarities, I am having additional difficulties and was wondering if anyone had any ideas.

I have a 2008 Grande Punto with just over 60,000 miles.

Generally when first starting there is a squealing noise that increases in pitch and intensity when you rev. It lasts less than 30 seconds then stops. On two ocasions this problem has been associated with a fair amount of smoke that the first time filled the inside of the car. These problems do not happen every time.

Also the car is generally noisy and is leaking a bit from the front box of the exhaust.

Today the squealing noise happened several miles down the road when the car was warm. This persisted for longer than usual and was associated with the battery dash logo. Turning the car off and on again got rid of teh dash warning.

As a bit of a background I had significant problems with the car about a year ago.
I replaced the battery, the starter motor was changed as was the alternator. Cam belt changed. Not really had any problems up until a couple of months ago.

Only real issue I have had since is the starter motor got "stuck" and woudln't work. a tap with a wrench fixed things and have not had any issues since.

The car is also going through a lot more oil than it used to. I have noticed drips of oil at the back and under the airbox. I know I have problems with the breather hose- this was split. I previously electrical taped this back together and have one on order but is yet to arrive.

Do you think all of these signs could all relate to the breather hose?

I am inclined to say the battery is ok but will check voltages at rest and revving. I would have also thought the year old alternator should be good still rather than having seized bearings. Given no real issues up until a couple of months ago suggest the cam chain tension shoudl be still good.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

Rob

A bit more reading around the issues I figure at least some of the issues may relate to the stock drainage pipe directing water directly onto the alternator- replacement part ordered in addition to the breather hose.

smoke is alternator belt, crank is spinning it but it doesnt spin on alternator side, it will get burned through and it will fall off

Noise is definitely coming from the alternator.

I'm hoping the slippage might improve with the aftermarket/revised water diverting pipe.

The alternator is a year old. Non OEM part.

Battery has a voltage of 12.87
With the engine running I get 13.97 and under load it drops to 13.84v.
I think this is a little low. Over 14 normally? Might these readings indicate yhe alternator is struggling/be on the way out?

Thanks

around 14V is normal charging voltage, did you look at your alternator belt, could be that its to loose
car got aircon?

I suspect the tensioner on the aux belt has seized, the bearing will still rotate but the unit will not tension against the belt, I had this on mine.

the car does have aircon although it has not really worked for 5 or 6 years.

The alternator belt seemed pretty tight although I'm not entirely sure exactly how tight it should be?

Apologies for my ignorance but how to I check to see if the aux tensioner has seized?

Thanks for the help so far!

you can unbolt compressor to remove belt and then spin tensioner by hand, but putting belt back on is quite a pain without proper tools, also involves removing right front wheel

No point in spinning the tensioner bearing, this doesn't seize(or usually not anyway) the actual tensioner itself that is spring loaded seizes and can't be adjusted. It is meant to be self adjusting with the spring but if seized it naturally won't work. Try levering the tensioner and see if it moves it should move back against the belt under it's spring loading.

Thank you for the replies.

I have basic mechanical knowledge and a few tools- is levering the tensioner something that I could do on the driveway or is it a bit more difficult? If feasible to do myself how would I go about it?

New breather hose arrived as did the scuttle drain pipe which I plan to fit at the next free moment.

Is the oil at the back of the airbox likely to relate to the split and/or potentially blocked breather?

Thanks again.

Rob